[J.P.’s Moment of Common Sense on Broad View, KRNG 101.3 FM Reno. Listen live Saturdays at 11:00 AM Pacific Time.]

A curious thing happened this week.  While President Obama was sending warships into the eastern Mediterranean and preparing to fire cruise missiles into Syria, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, was cutting short his vacation to plead with parliament for permission to participate.

In other words, the infamously self-congratulatory democracy of the United States of America, formed two hundred thirty seven years ago by violent rebellion against the King of England, has traded places with its former master.  Over there across the pond they follow the rules of democracy.  Over here we follow King Obama.

If you were wondering when is the proper time to mourn our constitutional republic... perhaps now.

Exactly the same scenario happened two years ago.  David Cameron asked for permission from parliament while Obama ignored Congress and started lobbing hundreds of cruise missiles into Libya.  Those missiles cost between $1 million and $1.5 million each, did you know that?  On just the first day, March 19, 2011, we fired off 112 of them.  Obama treats them like two-dollar 4th-of-July bottle-rockets.

On that first day, we spent over $100 million.

One year and six months later the thugs we pushed into power dragged our ambassador out of the Benghazi consulate, sodomized him with wooden objects, killed him, and dragged his body through the streets.  We didn’t exactly get our money’s worth, did we?  This is why the Constitution insists that decisions to wage war be made by Congress, after democratic debate, not by the president.  He’s the commander-in-chief but he can’t use the U.S. military whenever and wherever his predilections or whims might tempt him.

The U.S. military does not belong to him nor is it a toy for his personal amusement.

We had nothing concrete to gain in Libya and we have less to gain in Syria.  On one side is the president of Syria, a despotic thug who sponsors terrorism around the world, and on the other side is the rebellion, led by Al Qaeda.  Both sides are enemies of ours.  They’re busy pounding each other mercilessly.  Common sense, Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, and even Nancy Reagan’s astrologer all say the same thing: leave these creeps alone and let them beat each other silly.

Your average kindergartner understands this kind of situation perfectly but President Obama will brook no discussion when it comes to doing what he wants to do.  This is a characteristic that scares many Americans and has more and more people talking about impeachment. In the matter of war we have the example of Libya and probably soon Syria, plus we have drones dropping bombs in a bunch of other countries where Congress hasn’t been asked to declare war.

Question: on what authority does the President of the United States assassinate an American teenager sitting by the side of the road eating lunch with his cousins in Yemen?

Here at home the president simply refuses to do his job.  Not in a lazy way (although he clearly is) but in an obstinate I-know-better-than-Congress way.  The job of the president is to administer laws passed by Congress, not make laws or bend laws or ignore laws he doesn’t like.  Here’s the oath presidents take:

“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Those are the words Obama said aloud and swore to with his hand on a Bible but he refuses to enforce DOMA (the Defense Of Marriage Act), immigration laws (he won’t deport illegal aliens anymore unless they’re over thirty), the welfare reform laws passed during the Clinton administration, the No Child Left Behind laws passed during the Bush administration, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, the stimulus) passed during the first year of his own administration, federal marijuana laws, and vast stretches of that federal monstrosity called Obamacare.

Obama knows that Obamacare is strangling the U.S. economy so he keeps postponing its implementation and refusing to enforce the law’s requirements.  Except he can’t do that.  Congress makes the law and the president must enforce it the way it is, not the way he wishes it was.  If he doesn’t like a certain law he can ask Congress to change it but he can’t change it on his own.  That’s a violation of his oath.

Which is grounds for impeachment.

Most people have no idea how bad things are.  Our president is acting like a dictator, not the president of a constitutional republic.  Example: he decided that mandatory sentences for drug crimes are too strict so now federal prosecutors hide from judges the amount of drugs involved so those sentences can’t be imposed.  Example: when courts overruled his moratorium on oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, he turned around and imposed another moratorium anyway.  Example: thousands of criminal illegal aliens are being released from prisons.  Example: he sold guns to Mexican drug cartels to foment violence he could use as an excuse for gun control.  Example: he is threatening to institute cap & trade on carbon because he’s angry that Congress won’t fight Global Warming.

Same thing with gun control—he’s threatening to do it himself if Congress won’t do it and this week he issued two executive orders restricting gun ownership.

A while back, he decided to impose a five dollar per year tax on cell phones, did you know that?  The president has no authority to tax, just like he has no power to declare war or make laws.  He doesn’t care.  He’s out of control.  Unless we stop him soon, we’ll lose the ability to stop him altogether.

It’s very simple: any man who takes an oath of office and then violates that oath should be impeached.

That’s... today’s dose of common sense.

“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” —Plato

“Power always thinks that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all His laws.” —John Adams

From Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA        Tweet

September 1, 2013 - Good read! Here is more fuel to add to the fire. – Todd L., Michigan

August 31, 2013 - We need to expose Obama for who he really is. He is an incompetent ideologue who is committing crimes against the American people by dividing the nation along racial lines, not enforcing the law of the land, and overlooking and usurping other laws. Obama did not and does not deserve to be president. I am sorry that the first black president turned out to be such a failure. Thank you for an excellent rant!! – Marge M., Rhode Island